Environmental concerns regarding soil and atmospheric contamination, caused by automotive related pollutants are becoming increasingly important issues for all governments. New passenger vehicles that come off the production line typically requires an average of 6 to 8 oil and oil filter changes every year for a 12 to 14 year period, typically average driving life for North American passenger vehicles. Commercial vehicles require 12 or more oil and oil filter changes every year. Older vehicles require even more frequent changes.
The disposal of used oil filters and waste oils is costly. The waste generated from filters and discarded oil amounts to billions of units daily world wide.
Conventional oil filters presently on the market are made for disposal after each usage. The filtering pore size of these filters varies from 20 to 120 microns. Conventional oil filters on the market are equipped with a safety valve but some are not. Of those filters, oil starvation to the engine may occur as they are prone to pressure breaks, which opens the paper fibre element and forces the oil to channel through the filter thus eliminating its filtering efficiency. Under proper operation a conventional filter restricts main oil flow from the filter medium clogging. Oil pressure then forces the built-in safety valve to open to allow unfiltered oil to flow back freely to the engine, preventing oil starvation which will lead to serious engine damage. Clearly, unfiltered oil may then flow through the engine and due to the high pressure of the oil particles on the surface of the fully clogged paper medium are transported through the engine and contact delicate engine parts.
In terms of materials of which typical filters are made, generally metals are employed for the canister and paper fiber for the filter medium. These materials and the energy used to produce them can be conserved by practicing the present invention.
Other than the full flow oil filters, auxiliary bypass filtering systems for finer micron filtrations are also commonly found on the market. An auxiliary bypass system works like a dialysis machine, a small amount of fluid is taken, cleaned, and returned into the source for merger with the main source. As an example, approximately 30 minutes to about one hour is one cycle for a full sump tank of 4 litres of motor oil to be cleaned by a bypass system. Some of the full flow filters allow for 16 gallons per minute of oil to be filtered through the engine. The bypass system does not emphasize oil flow but the efficiency in filtering particles in the smallest micron sizes, usually in 1 to 3 microns. Generally speaking the conventional bypass oil filters on the market are bulky units, installed separately from the existing full flow system. They are extremely labour intensive to install and are much more expensive than the full flow filters. These bypass filters are designed to be disposed of at the time the engine oil is changed.